Well its been a dream of mine for awhile to have a computer running in my car. When my 97 BMW 318is died, I had to buy quick and got myself a 2006 Cobalt SS. Its the fully decked out sedan with the XM and upgraded stereo, OnStar, etc. So I've had to somewhat through out my plans from before of taking out the head unit and putting in a lilliput touch screen in the dash.

So I guess what I'm looking for is advice. If I were to mount a computer in the trunk and have my GPS receiver setup and all that goodness, is it possible to just tap the factory head unit so I can have all audio go through it and mount a touchscreen off to the side of the center console. All I can think of is the CD changer might be able to act as a Line Input, but I have no idea if thats possible or what....anyway if anyone has gone down this road I'd appreciate some suggestions. Thanks!

Warren

 

what are you looking to use the computer for?

 

This is the closest thing I know of that is an in car computer. This you mount some where in your car and then it runs off of its own unit. There may be away that you could connect it to the navi screen you already have but I can not get you any specifics on it.

You can also use a lap top that has a vid out connection but again I can not really give any specifics on how to hook it up to your navi screen. I just know it can be done with normal screens and your navi screen should have similar connections.

 

There isn't a line in for the factory radio. Either you have to replace it or get a fm transmitter for now. I'd recommend one that connects to the ant. I'm doing something similar, and looked all over the place for something to connect inline. Of course this was almost a year ago, so I don't know if theres anything new out.

 

Check this out, i know he did it w/ a GTi, but still its amazing, and he describes it pretty in depth. It is a beautifully clean install too.

 

Well what I am basically looking for is to integrate a Windows Media Center or an open source interface geared more towards cars. First and foremost, its going to be a music jukebox that'll seemlessly sync up with my home media center when I am within my wireless range. Also of course that means it'll have wifi. I'm also looking to be able to play videos and DVDs on it, but I'm not so concerned about the DVD portion at all since I'll be ripping them to the HD anyway. I'd also like it to do GPS navigation a la Tom Tom. Web browsing and network hot spot detection through NetStumbler. The computer aspects of things I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for. I'll go with an Opus PSU so it'll hibernate the PC properly with the ignition.

I'm an IT consultant by trade, but I know next to nothing about car stereos. I'll probably pay for the installation, I just want to make sure that whatever I decide on I can plan out properly and hand someone all they need to do the car portion.

The StreetDeck software looks nice and I'll definitely investigate it more. And since it sounds like the only inline option is an FM transmitter, I'm not too high on that idea.


I really wish that had put one stinking line in on this radio. Hell, even if just for iPod/MP3 player linking, it wouldve made this easy.

So now here are my options. 1) I'm going to want to look for a double DIN head unit with a line input and a touchscreen LCD mounted to the side of a the center console 2) a head unit hidden away and a touchscreen LCD where the factory radio currently is, 3) Ditch the head unit altogether and have the car computer power everything including FM and the speakers all on its own.

Wow anyone gone down any of these roads yet?

Warren